In the summer of 1997, Captain Charles Moore competed in the transpacific yacht race in Hawaii. After the game, Moore and his teammates sailed back to California. The usual route is to sail along the edge of the North Pacific subtropical circulation, sailing down ocean currents. But this time, Moore decided to take a shortcut, crossing a large area of still water at the center of the high pressure to California. Years later, he recalled, "In 1997 there was a very strong El Niño, the most severe one ever. Under its influence, the surface temperature of the Pacific Ocean waters has also reached an all-time high." The unusually high temperatures have resulted in an unusually calm sea surface. As he passed through the waters, Moore noticed that there was garbage floating everywhere on the surface, especially plastic waste. In 2010, Moore told Stephen Colbert about the scene: The faraway sea was "a disgusting plastic sinkhole."
Moore's new findings were quickly confirmed. The vast expanse of areas scattered with large amounts of plastic waste is often referred to as the great pacific garbage patch, the Pacific trash vortex, or the island of floating trash. All kinds of garbage from all over the world (especially plastic products) have gathered together and floated in the center of the ocean, becoming another symbol of global problems. Global warming causes glaciers to melt and polar bears to find it difficult to feed, and the product of marine pollution is the garbage island where this waste accumulates. In 2012, a special image showed the Pacific garbage belt: a variety of brightly colored plastic waste floating on the surface of the sea, densely packed with a large area of the sea. If you're not staring at it closely, it's almost impossible to spot a ship in the middle of this large whirlpool of garbage. This is simply an environmental disaster version of Where is Waldo? (A mini-game where the player needs to find the protagonist Waldo in a complex, chaotic picture) tests whether we can find the man on the ship in a large piece of garbage.
But that photo was not taken in the garbage strip, but near Manila Bay. The severity of plastic pollution in the circulation zone is far beyond our sights. In an interview with the Earth Island journal, Moore clarified: "It's not the same as the junk island people think it is. The garbage island in the circulation area is whenever you sail in that area, as long as you stand on the deck, you can see all kinds of waste discarded by humans floating on the surface of the sea. Marcus Eriksen's new book, Junk Raft, exposes the true state of plastic litter pollution in the oceans. The researchers actually entered these garbage collection zones and found out.
The researchers found that the large garbage island shown in the photo is only the tip of the iceberg, and the real situation is far worse than the scene in the photo. "Garbage Sailboat" chronicles Erikson's personal experience of going deep into the circulation center to inspect the garbage belt. He and his companions crossed the garbage strip on a sailing ship made of 15,000 disposable plastic bottles and eventually found that "the garbage island, the garbage dump, is not enough to describe how bad the real situation is." ”
Through this "special" voyage, Erikson and his companion Joel Paschal discovered that it was not a garbage island at all, but a sea of large pieces of plastic debris. This plastic waste, which gathers together under the action of circulation, is originally intact, but under the action of seawater erosion and sun erosion, it is decomposed into fragments and particles. These debris and particles, part of which float on the surface of the sea, attract fish and seabirds to feed. Previous understandings of garbage islands did not take into account "the distribution of plastic contaminants and toxic components, as well as the widespread harm to marine life." Erickson hopes to solve the problem of data scarcity through a series of investigations, so that people can accurately understand the phenomenon itself and its implications. Contrary to past understanding, we can think of this plastic waste as a kind of smoke that not only floats on the surface of the sea, but also affects the breathing and food of the creatures on the seabed. "Imagine if you could stand at the bottom of the sea and look up and see only the plastic waste."
Erikson further explains:
"The world's largest rivers and most densely populated coastlines are located along the North Pacific's subtropical circulation system, which carries large amounts of plastic pollutants produced by humans into the ocean, which break down into microplastic particles that converge on the oceanbed to form large clouds of shadows. Standing on the bottom of the sea, it is like being in the clouds, surrounded by plastic particles and debris. ”
Riding on a garbage galleon, Eriksen and Pascal follow the floating path of plastic waste along the ocean current. Along the way, they encountered storms, sailboat failures, and gastrointestinal discomfort, all of which were recorded in the book in the form of memoirs. In his book, Erikson analyzes the rise of the plastics industry and the increasing pollution of plastics, chemical compositions that make these substances more and more difficult to decompose and more harmful. The book also reveals the widespread use of everything in the plastics industry to evade responsibility for safe handling of plastic contaminants. When we reach the garbage whirlpool, a large patch of plastic contaminants comes into view, including even many that should be disposed of immediately, rather than crossing the ocean. Seeing such a scene, we feel that these plastic pollutants are not only the source of ecological problems, but also reflect the dark side of human nature in material society.
Plastic products are not saddled with notoriety from the start. In 1955, Life Magazine published an article called "Throwaway Living." The article was written to celebrate single-use plastics. A photo is also attached to the article showing a family happily using plastic plates, buckets, and plastic knives and forks. With these disposable dishes, there is no longer a need to wash dishes. In 2011, Susan Freinkel published Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, which wrote: "After the end of World War II, this single-use product began to flow into the market. However, those who pay special attention to the 'reuse of resources', especially those who experienced the Great Depression and the scarcity of resources in wartime, are extremely disgusted by this product. "This type of consumer habitually reuses anything they buy until it's broken and can't be used anymore.
Humans first invented plastic as an alternative to dwindling natural resources such as ivory, bone, wood and turtle shells. In the 1860s, the New York Times published a report on the mass deaths of elephants, and with the popularity of ivory products such as ivory combs, ivory piano keys and ivory billiard balls, the demand for ivory was growing, and this demand led to the extinction of elephants. In 1869, in search of an ivory alternative to billiard balls, the American chemist John Wesley hyatt made a plastic substance by adding camphor and a small amount of alcohol to nitrocellulose, which could be molded under hot pressure into a plastic product resembling ivory, which Haythort named celluloid, the world's earliest plastic. In 1907, the chemist Leo Baekeland invented a polymeric resin made from a combination of phenol and formaldehyde, known as bakelite. The emergence of phenolic resins gradually replaced shellac resins. Shellac resin, a solid solution of lactones and gum esters of hydroxycarboxylic acids, was an important material widely used in the early days of the electrical industry, but its production process was very strange. Shellac is made from beetle excrement, and 1 pound of shellac requires the collection of secretions from about 150,000 beetles for 6 months to get it. The emergence of these new compounds has helped elephants and beetles out of their predicament. During World War II, as the demand for natural rubber surged, new synthetic materials played a huge role and began to dominate.
The widespread use of plastics heralds a new era of high material liberalization. Unlike the Great Depression and wartime shortages of supplies, when plastics appeared, raw materials could be extracted directly from the laboratory, as if by magic. As a result, the cost of making goods has been greatly reduced. In the early 20th century, the plastics and chemical industries developed simultaneously, and the by-products produced in the oil and gas finishing process were used as raw materials for plastic production. In Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, Fryanker fictionalizes a story about John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller looked out over his refinery from a distance and saw a beam of flame erupting from the chimney. He asked the person next to him what was on fire, and the man explained that it was ethylene gas, a by-product of the oil refining process. Rockefeller, who had always hated waste, then asked the man to "find out what the gas was for." Ethylene gas became the main component of polyethylene, a plastic material commonly used in plastic bags, bottles and other plastic packaging. It is estimated that by 2018, the global production of polyethylene alone will reach 100 million tons.
Eriksen is committed to investigating the entire process of this plastic waste from its source to its final disposal. He has been to a landfill in Delhi, India, a waste recycling centre in Marin County, and a livestock clinic in Dubai. Along the way, he has witnessed the terrible impact plastics have on the environment and organisms. Starving camels have stomachs stuffed with plastic bags they've eaten; plastic carries estrogens that can mutate a beluga whale into a hermaphrodite; and microplastics in the turtle's blood cause it to lay fewer and fewer eggs. Once, when all the food prepared on the sailboat was eaten, Eriksen and Pascal decided to fish as a food supply. They caught a few double-banded trevally and put them on deck ready to start cutting fillets. However, while dealing with the double-banded trevally, Erikson noticed that one of the fish didn't seem quite right. "The fish's stomach was about the size of an almond, and it was hard to touch. I just touched it with the edge of the kitchen knife and it cracked. 17 pieces of plastic were poured out of its stomach, and there was nothing else in it. ”
The stories that Erikson presents in the book are shocking to the reader, but what is more thought-provoking is that he guides the reader to think critically about the current consumption culture and treatment. In a world where cheap products are infested and planned for scrap (designing a limited lifespan for a product to be scrapped after a certain period of time), many of the things we buy have a very limited lifespan. When these things are scrapped, we will definitely throw them away. The question is, "Where should I go?" Erickson points out that all these cheap and convenient items (and the cheap and convenient packaging that comes with buying them) have to have a place to go. Less than 10% of waste plastic is recycled, and the rest is sent to landfills. But it is not guaranteed to be "all". Plastic waste that is thrown on the side of the road, or in that kind of mismanaged landfill, plastic waste that is blown away by the wind, etc., can be blown into drains and rivers and eventually into the ocean.
To prevent the waste from accumulating, Eriksen advocated a "circular economy," arguing that planned scrapping should be outlawed and that the design concept of goods should take into account long lifespan and reuse. Circular economy is a kind of material circulation flow economy, relying on ecological resource circulation to develop. Erikson summarizes in the book:
"In the circular economy, economic incentives, or policy incentives, will be triggered by a new type of value chain. Under this incentive system, we integrate product designers, system engineers, product manufacturers and waste recyclers into the same system, forming a complete cycle. ”
Erickson's proposition implies a huge shift. In the past, manufacturers were only responsible for selling the products they made. In the "circular economy", consumers also need to pay attention to the use of products after taking them home.
In his book, Erikson traces the history of American environmentalism in focusing on consumer choice, which is perhaps the most instructive for readers. Eriksen recalls that in the 1970s, American environmentalists first advocated Earth Day, calling for a clean, simple, and peaceful living environment.
In 1971, Keep America Beautiful filmed a public service short film, Crying Indian, in which indians played by The Italian-American actor Iron Eyes Cody saw someone throwing a large piece of garbage in a moving car on the highway, looking at the pile of garbage, and the Indians were running down. The filming of the short film was sponsored by companies such as Anheuser-busch, Pepsico and Coca-Cola. Because it sends a message that "puts the responsibility for plastic pollution on consumers," arguing that individuals should take full responsibility for cleaning up this garbage, while municipalities should bear the costs required. The manufacturer of the product, which is not mentioned at all, has become the direct beneficiary of this information. "It's a strategy that shifts the focus of the public to other aspects, ignoring the responsibilities of product producers and product designers," Eriksen said. It has to be said that this strategy was very successful, and people's attention at that time was completely guided by it. ”
In fact, there is no need to do so. Erikson is very supportive of extended producer responsibility, which he argues does not impose any unreasonable demands on producers. Of the 35 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United States is the only country that does not have laws on plastic packaging. In fact, doing so is good for businesses. Because Erikson found: "When a company is willing to take responsibility for the entire life cycle of its products and their packaging, then there are new technologies for waste recycling that will flourish." ”
The battle for the relevant legislation is still ongoing. In 2016, California "banned" the use of single-use plastic bags at grocery stores and convenience stores (not really banning shopping bags, except that consumers would have to pay 10 cents for a paper or reusable shopping bag to outlaw plastic shopping bags that used to be available for free). In the summer of 2017, authorities issued a ban on the use of "microbeads" in cleaning products (microbeads are synthetic plastic beads that are commonly used in cosmetics and personal care products such as facial cleansers, scrubs and toothpaste, and can play an exfoliating role. However, this fine plastic particle is difficult to filter by the sewage treatment system and can cause serious damage to the water source). Every step of development will inevitably lead to controversy. But these advances mark a shift in the way people think, no longer as a matter of convenience, but with a focus on the impact that these garbage can have. It also means that people are finally starting to pay attention to companies that produce and profit from harmful substances, hoping that they will be able to take responsibility for coping.
The book "Trash Sailboat" is interspersed with many of Erikson's own life stories. He used the most beautiful words to describe the ocean. Erikson recalls a "special" diving experience filled with glowing plankton, which he describes in his book: "Thousands of bioluminescent beings surging around me, and the light that collides between them pours out from my fingertips, and I feel like an astronaut in the vast starry sky of the universe." Through some of the anecdotes briefly mentioned in the book, we learn the story between him and his wife (he proposed to her on the boat and asked "Will you marry me?"). After that, he immediately added: "One more thing I must say: I want to cross the ocean"). In addition, he shares his time in the army in the book. During the First Gulf War, he went with his army to Kuwait. In 2015, he returned there to investigate pollution and investigate the impact of the global military-oil consortium on marine pollution.
The book involves a lot of political and debate-related content, but Erikson cleverly uses his personal narrative to integrate these boring contents into the story, making it easier for readers to understand and accept. Erikson did exactly what he did on this junk sailing trip through the garbage belt, using vivid stories to raise awareness of the problem of plastic pollution. Once, during the voyage, their sailboat was almost torn apart, and in such a critical situation, Erikson was most worried about the stories besides his skin. He wrote in the book: "We need to use a good story to call on the public to unite, and this adventure is an entry point." ”
Erikson is not unique in using this seemingly showy approach to draw public attention to environmental issues, even specifically marine pollution. In 2010, David de Rothschild sailed a yacht made of 12,000 plastic bottles from California to Australia to raise awareness of plastic pollution in the oceans. Erikson also mentions Rosschel's voyage in Trash Sailboat. The two also quarreled over the naming of the ship, and both wanted to name their boats after "plastiki" (pronounced "plastic") in homage to the explorer thor heyerdahl, who sailed a sailing ship called kon tiki across the Pacific Ocean in 1947. Maybe they're the right one to do that. Because their actions and stories have indeed pushed the issue in the right direction, attracted widespread public attention and pushed for practical reforms.
But in the final analysis, the main point of the book "Garbage Sailboat" is the analysis of the problem, and the personal story is only a superficial form. Just like the rumored "shiny" garbage floating island, the problem of dim and dull microplastic "smoke" in reality is more serious - the most worthy of our attention is not always the glittering things.
(Translator: Liu Sang)
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